Originally Posted by drumguy

Competed in my first bike race ever this past Saturday at McCormick's Creek in Spencer, IN. I was in the Citizen's (CAT 5) race, which was a 32 mile course...7 laps of a 4.5+ mile loop with two pack splitting hills and 12 mph winds. I finished 4th out of 20+ riders! I was in shock since it was my first race, I had no idea what it would be like and kind of figured I would be dropped on the hills after 7 laps, but I held.

Originally Posted by drumguy

My new PSIMET 50mm carbon clinchers were awesome!

Originally Posted by dmb2786

ride sally ride. cat 3.

i've never been so sketched out in a race. i hope this is temporary or i need a new sport.

Originally Posted by MDcatV

^what sketched you out? were you riding poorly? was it others bad riding? proximity for/aft? proximity side/side? going through turns? straight parts? a little bit of everything? sketched pre or post rain? was it actually that you were nervous about riding or just trust issues with unfamiliar wheels around you? identify the root it'll help you resolve.

Originally Posted by dmb2786

thanks. good questions. i think the wide open course freaked me out a bit when people were going 10+ wide on the back stretch. proximity side/side was probably the issue. there was lots of bumping and nervous riding in the corners. i think the crash early in the race might have freaked me out a bit. we had to pass by that guy's bloody face like 15 times (i know, don't look).

it wasn't the rain. we got shut down on the first lap the storm came in. that wind was freaking nuts though.

i think there was a lot of bad riding from a lot of people. i was either off the front or last wheel for pretty much the whole race (mostly last wheel). i didn't want to be anywhere near the wide part of the group. i'm going to go do some bump drills this week and hopefully get more confident.

i haven't been a 3 for long, but i feel like 3s are probably more dangerous than 4/5s. i guess everyone gets confident. maybe i don't trust enough.

Originally Posted by umd

Nice video. I don''t think you will get chewed up or spit out in the 3s.

Originally Posted by Racer Ex

I enjoyed seeing that.

Originally Posted by waterrockets

Don't discount the very real possibility that the 3s will be more suited to your style of racing. It's not the same as the 4s, and it's not just faster.

Originally Posted by save10

Butterfly Criterium, Pacific Grove, CA (just next to Monterrey)

M4/5
course - downtown streets, four corners, but uphill/downhill. The course was really great.
field - 35?

Race - attack solo on 3rd lap, hoping 2 or 3 would go with me. Turn around and its just me. I decide between sitting up and keep going...but in the women's race right before there was a $50 dollar prime so i figure if i stay out long enough I might get one of those and maybe some guys would eventually bridge across (they didn't). Off the front for 7 or 8 laps. +3 primes...no $50

Then got reeled in. tail gun for a few laps recovering and almost got dropped. Felt great with 4 laps to go, begin to move up for another go and reintegrated mid-pack. then with 3 laps to go, a few guys go down in a corner at the top of hill and i get caught behind. I dont go down, but i have to stop and I am left behind. Too late in race for neutral lap. finished alone...in the 20's?

overall a good race. My team mate got fifth and since I was off the front alone for a large part of the race, the announcer was yelling out our team name over the loudspeaker often. and pacific grove is really nice.

Originally Posted by kudude

again? lame.

sounds like you had a good race, though. does "+3 primes" mean you won 3 primes while solo?

Originally Posted by MDcatV

i got to the point i wouldnt do them except at something like reston or a road race that would trim the fat off the back and make things safer.

Originally Posted by MDcatV

i didnt know a crash occurred in the cat 3 race, hope things looked worse than they turned out to be.

Originally Posted by johnybutts

Won the 45 race today. Got my wheels in the truck 1 minute before the start, so no warmup. Race was hard lots of short hard climbs. Team hotel San Jose had 7 or so riders in the field of 70 I think and they worked us over pretty good all race long up until the leadout.

They attempted a leadout at 1km. I was about 15th. I moved up in the wind to sit righton them at about 700m. Then at 500 m the road opened up for us I found a hole and went. I never stood for the sprint, but just raised the pace super high. People were trying to come around me and I didn't know where line was exactly and just kept it up and crossed the line first

Originally Posted by Racer Ex

Saturday was our State age-based Crit Championship. It was held at The Driveway, very cool motorsports facility that’s a tight twisting course with a short popper hill that puts the burn into the legs and can help break things up. Even this time of morning it’s already in the 80’s and the humidity is bringing on the funk.

I went in knowing that I’d be heavily marked, that there were some guys that I’d have trouble with in a sprint, and that there was some strong talent including two teammates who had been laying waste to that age group all year. Several other teams had a pretty good presence, I was on my own.

Pre race conversations with the competition went something like this:

“So what are you going to do?”

“Ride hard from the gun”

And that was pretty much my strategy. Got to make it hard so it didn’t come down to a field sprint. If I blew up in the process, oh well.

So I went off the front about 90 seconds in. Look back, and I have three very strong guys on my wheel, and a gap behind. I stay on the front drilling it so there weren’t any lulls. After a couple of laps I pull off and throw the elbow, current points leader pulls through, as does his teammate, as does our other break mate. We’re not flying, but we’re moving well. I notice I can gap folks in a couple of the technical corners and coming over the kicker hill; file that away for later use.

Couple of laps later another 4-5 guys bridge up, including a sprinter who won the State Cup a couple of years ago. My break mates sit up slightly and we slow. There’s a bit over 40 minutes to go and this might come back together.

I go. Hard. Get a gap. 350w for the next 5 mins. Holding the gap at 10 seconds and they are chasing hard. Another 5 minutes and the gap isn’t moving. Keep the head down, you can’t let them think they’re closing.

Then it creeps up a bit. Thirty minutes to go it’s now 15 seconds. The wind is kicking up and that’s not good for one guy OTF, so I’m resurrecting the old Moto GP skills and skipping the tire through the fast horseshoe bend. A second here, a second there. Stay tucked when the course straightens. Keep it around 325w.

Gap jumps to 20. Then 30. Then back down to 20. Watch the clock. Stay steady. Start passing backmarkers and that gets me a few hairy moments trying to figure out which way they are going. Guys are blowing from the heat and the pace, I’m drenched in sweat which starts running into my eyes. I don’t wipe them, I know that’s just going to make the burn worse. Just deal with it.

Finally the lap cards come out. I can see the wind go out of the chase group, they drop further back. I come onto the pack and sail through yelling “coming left!”

They get a free tow for the last few laps. I keep firing away, we’re past the free lap and if I flat I want as much time as I can get.

Last lap the guys I’ve been towing come around as we near the line to sprint out their positions. I go across pointing at the team logo on my chest then raise my hands.

Had planned on racing down in age an hour later to help some of my teammates, but I’m pretty much wrecked, so I make my apologies and collect my State Champ jersey and winnings.

Go home and do laundry.

Originally Posted by Dunce

Home town Crit.

Slow pace in part due to wind and the nature of the course. Nothing was getting away all day. A local tank has been riding away in races. He has already gone from a 5 to the 3's in just a few months of racing. I was in a 3 man break with him in a RR a few weeks ago that almost worked. He went off, his teammate was blocking, no one seemed to notice or care.

I suddenly found myself driving the pace as there were only a few laps left. With 2 laps left as we pass the start/finish I notice i'm suddenly slowly riding away from the pack. Out of turn 1 I realize that i'm either going to get gassed and swallowed up at the line, or I'm going to drop it and ride away. I chose the latter.

Much to my surprise, I caught him halfway through the 2nd to last lap. I dug deep...

On the last lap, out of turn 2 the gap was closing. I gave myself 3-5 seconds off, stood up, and hammered. Turn 3 is slightly uphill, continued through to turn 4 leading into a 400-ish meter downhill.

I was doubting myself until I made it to turn 3....stood up and hammered, again. They nearly got me at the line...nearly.

First win in the 3's.

Originally Posted by kudude

coming to grips with being pack fodder in the 4s.

finished 20th? of 60 or so in the iccc 'dash for cash' race yesterday. Went hard for two primes and didn't have the sprint. didn't race smart, but am not sure that I had the legs either way

Originally Posted by mattm

Awesome! They're probably wondering if you're using that internal motor thingy.. =]



Excellent, and the photo is great! You seem to have quite the collection of photos like that.



Nice!! Was it windy?



You can always upgrade based on pack finishes, right?

Originally Posted by mattm

Nice!! Was it windy?

Originally Posted by JohnKScott

You guys did great. It was a lot of fun watching you guys from my traffic control position!

Same race, same team, Cat 5. Yes our Cat 5 team is awesome!

Second crit/4th race ever

Good news: I was in view of the finish where my teammate won.
Bad news: I was a lap down

19th of 25.

At least I wasn't lapped until just before the bell lap. I have a lot of work to do. I'm sure I can ride smarter and help my chances of sitting in a little. But it's really apparent that I have a lot of fitness that I need to gain before I'm truly even in the mix in the 5's. I'm really kicking my own arse now for letting myself become such a fat schlub and letting myself go from ages 20-43. I used to be a pretty fair athlete and while my mind is still there, it's frustrating to struggle like this. But, these are the cards I have (even if they were self dealt) and I just need to work as hard as I can to improve to the best of my ability. That part is still fun. So, my goals for the remainder of this season are to 1) not get lapped and 2) not get dropped. Meanwhile, I will be putting my best effort into every pedal stroke in every race I enter regardless of my position. It will only make me stronger!

One epiphany I had during the race on Sunday...My time spent suffering off the back is preparation for time spent suffering off the front later down the line.

Originally Posted by badhat

damnit

i got 10th in the SMC omnium.

mathmatically if id showed up for the street sprints and gotten dead last i'd have been 6th. and just a couple of points away from 5th

lesson learned:

always do every event in the omnium. even if you think you suck in them.

Originally Posted by waterrockets

Driveway, M35+. Kept teammate fresh for 3rd, ~10th for myself. This was the most fun I've had on the bike this year.

A lot of the fast Austin masters were in it (EB, PJR, KS, JK, CT). I had two teammates (J and TB). I covered one guy (EB) full-time, really big motor, but not much of a sprint on him. My teammates ran a zone defense on the others. We had a teammate in every move.

I was tired going into the last lap, but attacked on the hill to see if anyone would go with me. Nope. I settled in around 4th or so and just surfed the right wheels. I should have tried something earlier, but ended up on KS's wheel as he made a final attempt, and I used that to launch an all-out from 600m. I was only able to hold 850W for about 30 seconds there, starting at only 1250W. The top end had been sapped, and they closed the gap.

The nice thing is that my teammate Todd had been watching this all go down from about 4 places back. He hadn't seen much wind and was able to latch onto another team's train, but couldn't get around them.

Man, M35+ is so much more fun than Cat 3. So much more of a chess match, and at about the same speed. EB knows me well, and he just kept surging even when he knew I was in his draft, because he knew I was taking hit points back there (that's how a TT guy treats a sprinter, you know?). Well played and super fun. I wish we could have gotten a break to stick, but we never got the right guys in there at the same time.

Originally Posted by carpediemracing

Did a B race (normally for 4-5s, although I'm a 3). I rode to the race - about 4-4.5 hours ride, heat exhausted, couldn't eat, cramping, etc. I actually rode there to pick up my van, but once I was there and sitting on a chair suddenly racing the Bs didn't seem insane. Promoter let me race courtesy/free since it's at Bethel.

I was err "refreshed" at how the 4-5s ride. Frightening at points. Some guys were very smooth, looked very good, then swerved like 4 or 5 feet without looking. Another would suddenly jerk sideways 4 or 5 feet and yell to himself "Oh my God!" (and repeat every minute or so). I only noticed the really bad ones but it was definitely an eye opening experience.

I sat in for most of the race, took a few pulls, then led out the sprint. Although I had friends in the race I didn't plan anything out - I wanted to be just a random guy in the field. I really toned down my field-slicing antics because I felt like some of my moves would cause others to crash. I managed to get to the front and did, as one guy pointed out, almost a half lap leadout.

Long version (race is most of the way down):
https://sprinterdellacasa.blogspot.co...g-hot-day.html

cdr

Originally Posted by Issaquatch

Ballard Crit - Cat 4/5 race

Course is a fairly flat, two city block long by one wide four corner crit. The main stretch is mostly paved with bricks and has a few long cracks in the middle about the width of a tire; the first turn has a sinkhole-like depression about 6-8 inches deep and a couple feet round; and the third turn has a manhole cover that rises about 4-6 inches up out of the street (with some bricks sloping up to it, so you could hit it and stay upright if you are paying attention, but it wouldn't be fun).

This was a great race for me. I comfortably stayed in the back of the lead group for the entire race and ended up finishing somewhere in the top 20. I took outside lines for most of the race and it ended up being a smart move because I was always able to hit the turns at full speed -- no braking, no wasted energy. I learned I can corner at 30MPH, and that I can do laps at 28MPH. I feel like I still had some energy left at the end, so I guess I should have put more energy into moving up the last few laps. My goal was just to finish the race with the leaders (I had been dropped my first few crits), so missing accomplished. Now I need to start getting some Top 10s. I think that is doable, especially when I move back to field with only 5s.

Originally Posted by mattm

Won my first bike race today!!!!!

Ballard Crit 4/5's. Won a prime lap, then just hung out in the top 10-20. This race was so tough for me when I did it a year ago as my first crit - this time it was way easier, though I wouldn't call it easy!

With four to go I was in the top three, just waiting for the end to come around. My plan was to attack in the last half of the last lap, but team mate Kyle gave me an awesome leadout for the last three laps instead. I guess we dropped some of the field? I didn't look back. And wearing the leader's number for the crit series, I had to at least win one of 'em!

More than enough points for Cat 3 now. I can't believe it, but I'm upgrading after the omnium is over.

Originally Posted by ldesfor1@ithaca

CTSR circuit race:

race:
Duration: 1:18:11
Work: 1362 kJ
TSS: 162.9 (intensity factor 1.118)
Norm Power: 424
VI: 1.46
Pw:HR: n/a
Pa:HR: n/a
Distance: 31.03 mi
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1396 291 watts
Cadence: 31 170 94 rpm
Speed: 5.4 48.7 23.8 mph

that's 10 laps @ 4.7 w/kg NP. each time up the 90" hill was at 500-580 AP... and I was gentleman's sliding EVERY time. easily catching on the long backside descent... but dang, that was tough!

Originally Posted by johnybutts

Won the 45 race today. Got my wheels in the truck 1 minute before the start, so no warmup. Race was hard lots of short hard climbs. Team hotel San Jose had 7 or so riders in the field of 70 I think and they worked us over pretty good all race long up until the leadout.

They attempted a leadout at 1km. I was about 15th. I moved up in the wind to sit righton them at about 700m. Then at 500 m the road opened up for us I found a hole and went. I never stood for the sprint, but just raised the pace super high. People were trying to come around me and I didn't know where line was exactly and just kept it up and crossed the line first

Originally Posted by mike868y

Connecticut Stage Race Stage 3 - 91 mi hilly RR

-Photo by my teammate Joe Tindal


Probably the best road race of my (short) cycling career. I started towards the front (something I've needed to work on) and staged probably top 10 wheel for the first couple of miles into a nasty pavement section. I slid back after a little bit, then my top placed teammate (dennisd here on bf) got into a break so me and the only other guy from our team did some blocking to try and help make it stick. Didn't work, but it was fun. Felt solid for the rest of the first lap (course is two different loops strung together), but on the climbs at the beginning of lap 2, my teammate, the yellow jersey, a bunch of other guys and I got gapped off. We hammered to catch back on and eventually did. After a sketchy downhill, the race was neutralized over a gnarly steel bridge (that took out pretty much the whole pro field I hear) and we collectively decided on a group urination break. Probably one of the funnies things I've ever seen - watching an entire field pee on the side of the road.

From that point on I felt good. I was in good positioning going up the last climb and I finished strong with the pack. This is the first cat 4 RR I've finished with the pack, so even though it's a small feat, it's one I'm very happy with. It rained the entire time - probably about 3 inches. It was nearly impossible to see on the final climb, it made things interesting.

I forgot to do junior roll out again...d'oh! I think I'm going to tape a reminder on my top tube from now on. But honestly, I don't really care because I finished with the pack, felt strong, and I wasn't in GC anyway, so whateverrr.

I'm happy with fitness. Taking an easy week then building back up for Tokeneke.

Originally Posted by bostongarden

Very cool

Originally Posted by mattm

Thx bg!! You're a 3 now right? How's that going so far?

edit: err, how's the recovery from the crash going?